The sights, sounds and even smells of the First World War will be bursting out of South Hill Park in Bracknell in July when an interactive theatrical experience gets under way.

Audiences will find themselves walking through trenches, ducking under hessian roofing and sliding past corrugated passages, or waltzing around a ballroom to the sound of war songs crackling in the background.

They will watch the joy of an English country fair turn to the heartbreak of war and soldiers bracing themselves to go over the top.

“It is an interactive, walk-through experience,” says co-artistic director Katharine Hurst from theatre company Scene Productions, which is producing the show with South Hill Park.

“It’s unpredictable and strange and out of your comfort zone. It will shock, thrill and excite.”

Scene Productions and South Hill Park, with the help of some funding from Bracknell Forest Council, are putting on a two-week run of Oh! What a Lovely War to commemorate the start of the First World War, but it will be a unique, promenade version of the popular musical.

“Oh! What a Lovely War is so well known and it will be being done to death this year,” says Katharine.

“If you’re going to stage it there has to be something special that makes it worth coming to see. This is World War One hands-on. If you like the London Dungeons, it’s that sort of idea. People will see it and be genuinely surprised.”

Scene Productions has put on similar pieces in London and the company jumped at the chance to perform a community production at South Hill Park, as both Katherine and co-director Kelly Taylor-Smith are local to the arts centre.

The performance will begin in the Wilde Theatre where people will find themselves wandering into a Berkshire country fair, circa 1918.

“All the seats are going to come out and even people who know what the show is about will go ‘oh it’s a World War One fete’,” says Katharine. “They can have their palm read, play hook-a-duck and there’s a wrestling match going on.”

The announcement of war will be made and the second half will find audiences divided into four ‘regiments’ with each entering one room for a 10-15 minute performance before rotating to the next.

They will be guided through trenches, step into ballrooms and discover a room of letters hanging from the ceiling, collected from veterans and their families living in and around Bracknell. S

ome have been donated by Andrew Radgick, history officer of The Bracknell Forest Society, who is due to publish three volumes of war memories and artefacts later this year.

“We have got a pencil drawing of a man who set out to capture a German sergeant and got captured himself and the men used cigarettes to trade,” explains Kelly. “He asked an Italian prisoner who had also been captured to draw his picture and the cigarettes were part of the price.”

Katharine adds: “We have also got a sketch book from a medic who chronicled his life in the trenches, but from a humorous perspective.

“It echoes the style of the piece which is looking at the war from a satirical point of view. And rather than just talking about a trench, we’re going to walk through one. Rather than hearing about a ballroom, you might be invited to dance in one.”

After each group has visited all the rooms the piece will conclude with a dramatic and moving finale.

Through the performance audiences will be given a glimpse of the First World War, and its impact on Bracknell, in a performance which will certainly stay with them long after the Last Post has finished echoing into the dusk.

Oh! What A Lovely War is at South Hill Park from July 11 to 20, at 7.30pm.